Unless there is something wrong with the new Zwave+ motors, I'd rather do that. It just means less gateways/interfaces/plugins to deal with and you also get the direct feedback from each shade/blind/whatever.

Once I get some stuff taken care of I'll be jumping into this myself. (again) ... lots my job a month ago, want income stream again before dropping a few grand on shades

Has anyone tried the autoview motors yet? I only want to control one window and this seems to be the perfect solution to 'keep it simple' and avoid the bridge. How does it show up in UI7? Can you share your experience? I have the Vera Plus controller.

I really like the idea of having the z-wave built into the shade - especially for smaller shade setups - keeps it simple. I ordered one as a test for my foyer. Took almost 8 weeks to come in. Finally got it up and installed and the unit works like a charm - quiet and smooth operating. Only issue I have is I cannot seem to pair with Vera - anyone know how this is done? All google searches are for the RTS units, which this in not.

It's a video on how to add the Virtual Cord shades (apparently what the Bali shades really are) to a SmartThings network. I followed these instructions and they worked perfectly. I added the shades as a Generic Zwave device to Vera, and now have the control that I wanted, both via Vera and the individual button that comes with each shade. Even though I added them as a generic device, Vera knows that they are window coverings, with Open and Close options, and a slider for partial opening/closing (like 50%).

Note that the Autoview shades are Zwave+ devices on their own. They do not need the ZRTSI device to connect to the Vera network.

I received 10 of the new AutoView Z-wave+ motors from Bali. But I have an older Vera3 with UI5. I tried the procedure from the YouTube video posted earlier on just one of the blinds (for starters) and it worked just fine at pairing the blinds with my Vera3. I can control it up/down as expected. There is a minor issue where it continually shows a red error about "unable to retrieve version info" from the blinds, but it doesn't seem to affect the operation.

But then the fun/frustration started when I tried to add my original Z-wave+ Bali blind controller as a secondary remote. I was able to scan for and add it to the Vera3 fine. But there's simply no way to get it re-added to control the blind. And I haven't even tried the "single channel" remote yet. I gave up in frustration upon reading somewhere that these new blinds are Z-wave+ but my Vera3 UI5 is Z-wave only. Apparently I need a newer controller to work properly with the Z-wave+.

I'm kicking myself for not responding to the $50 off offer from MiCasaVerde mid-March, for a $149 VeraPlus at $99. I really intended to do the upgrade anyway ... but just put it off a little too long, it seems. When I clicked on that e-mail link on Saturday, the offer had expired. Dang. So anyway, I ordered a new VeraPlus from Amazon and it will arrive later today. I'm hopeful that it will fix my Bali remote control issue ... and that I'll also be able to figure out how to set up the single-channel remote to operate sets of blinds together. The 10 blinds are arranged as: 3 dining room bay window, 3 living room bay window, 4 florida room windows. I have three single-channel remotes (one for each of these groupings) -- plus 10 of the individual Bali remotes (one for each blind).

My new VeraPlus arrived an hour ago from Amazon. Some initial notes on the Vera3 (using UI5 firmware) to VeraPlus (using UI7) upgrade:

1. The instructions with the VeraPlus packaging tell you to go to http://home.getvera.com and login, and say that if a new user, click on "new account" or to login with your existing (Vera3) account. Well that doesn't work. If you try logging in with the existing Vera3 (UI5) account, it just spins at "Checking credentials". I found an article that describes the problem and the circumvention. You have to login to the home.getvera.com as a NEW user 'coz it's unable to check the credentials of a UI5 account. Also, the new home.getvera.com (for UI7) has new password rules. So you use the same account name (and e-mail address and everything else in its registration page), but a different password.

3. It tells you to go through the initial setup of the new controller, including assigning its name. This is done as part of the setup wizard -- that you will be in upon first signing in successfully. Once you get to the point of adding devices, you just exit from the wizard, because we're going to add them by copying from the Vera3.

4. The process of updating each of my Vera3 plugins broke several things (e.g. my Program Logic Controller settings, which is suddenly unable to resolve my "NIGHT" trigger), but I'll address those later on the new VeraPlus, eventually.

5. The article warns that the copying of the Zwave settings from old to knew can "take some time". In my case (about 100 devices in my Vera3), it took about 20 minutes. Be patient.

6. After the Zwave copy from Vera3 to VeraPlus, the Devices in the VeraPlus were "mostly" OK. But quite a lot of the dimmable lights just had numbers instead of their original names. And all of the battery powered devices were missing configuration. (The instructions warn that they need to be "waked up", but I didn't bother ... I'll fix them later.)

7. After the restore of the backup file from Vera3 to VeraPlus, the "dimmable light #s" became properly named as they were originally. It all looks pretty good -- apart from some of the battery powered devices and a few broken PLC devices. I'm going to spend a little time getting everything squeaky-clean and make sure everything is working well before continuing with the setup of the new blinds. More news as it happens...

Where do you find the Bali Autoview motors that are compatible with zwave plus. I have been to the Lowes and Bali sites and I only see the motors that require the RTS1 interface.Re

I ordered mine about a month ago from blinds.com ... on the final day of a "buy one get one free" deal. In talking to the blinds.com sales guy (who was excellent), I asked him about also buying a zrtsi device from them. He thought, and then confirmed with his supervisor, that the newest AutoView powered blinds use Zwave+ directly. And he was right! I was able to pair them with my VeraPlus no problem.

The factory-supplied Bali individual blind controllers are also Zwave+. As is the optional single-channel remote (that can control a set of several blinds, e.g. three in a bay window, with one control). It was a real pain to figure out the process to get these controllers working again. But I've fumbled through the process with one set of four blinds (Florida room) with everything working great. I documented my steps as I did them (with lots of backing up and starting over) and will test my own steps with a second set of 3 blinds (Dining room bay window) tonight, tweaking my documented steps as may be necessary. And then I'll use those instructions to do the third and final set of 3 blinds (Living room bay window) tomorrow to confirm everything works as documented. And then, finally, I'll publish that step-by-step here.

Greg

P.S. I wasted considerable time with getting the beta-test Vera voice control set up (via an Amazon Echo "Alexa" skill). It's now working but is very slow ... like 5 seconds elapsed between "Alexa, set florida room blinds to 50 percent" and any movement. OTOH, my original setup for my old Vera3 voice controlled devices, using the amazon-echo-ha-bridge (a Philips Hue Hub emulator from GitHub) accomplishes the same thing in a half-second. So I'm giving up on Vera voice control for now and will continue to use the emulator setup (a Java webapp running on my NAS). That's a story for another day too.

Where do you find the Bali Autoview motors that are compatible with zwave plus. I have been to the Lowes and Bali sites and I only see the motors that require the RTS1 interface.Re

I ordered mine about a month ago from blinds.com ... on the final day of a "buy one get one free" deal. In talking to the blinds.com sales guy (who was excellent), I asked him about also buying a zrtsi device from them. He thought, and then confirmed with his supervisor, that the newest AutoView powered blinds use Zwave+ directly. And he was right! I was able to pair them with my VeraPlus no problem.

The factory-supplied Bali individual blind controllers are also Zwave+. As is the optional single-channel remote (that can control a set of several blinds, e.g. three in a bay window, with one control). It was a real pain to figure out the process to get these controllers working again. But I've fumbled through the process with one set of four blinds (Florida room) with everything working great. I documented my steps as I did them (with lots of backing up and starting over) and will test my own steps with a second set of 3 blinds (Dining room bay window) tonight, tweaking my documented steps as may be necessary. And then I'll use those instructions to do the third and final set of 3 blinds (Living room bay window) tomorrow to confirm everything works as documented. And then, finally, I'll publish that step-by-step here.

Greg

P.S. I wasted considerable time with getting the beta-test Vera voice control set up (via an Amazon Echo "Alexa" skill). It's now working but is very slow ... like 5 seconds elapsed between "Alexa, set florida room blinds to 50 percent" and any movement. OTOH, my original setup for my old Vera3 voice controlled devices, using the amazon-echo-ha-bridge (a Philips Hue Hub emulator from GitHub) accomplishes the same thing in a half-second. So I'm giving up on Vera voice control for now and will continue to use the emulator setup (a Java webapp running on my NAS). That's a story for another day too.

Sounds promising. I've been waiting on direct Zwave control so I may jump in when Home Depot or Lowes has thier 30% off... or if Blinds.com has their BoGo sale again. I have 16 windows (or more) to cover so cost is an issue.

I received 10 of the new AutoView Z-wave+ motors from Bali. ...I'll follow up with any news/tips once I'm done.

OK, I'm finally ready to "publish" my step-by-step procedure to getting my ten new Bali AutoView blinds set up and working with my VeraPlus -- as well as with their original unique blind controls and the optional Single-channel remote controls. Since my earlier posting, I've had lots of VeraPlus issues unrelated to the blinds. Everything is sorted out now, and I can control all of my blinds using Vera automation, by voice control through Alexa, and by their original remotes.

I've uploaded a PDF file of the step-by-step procedure to Google Drive area. You can access it here:

Interested in your feedback on the single channel remote... They told me that is the only way to control multiple shades without a hub?

If you want to control multiple AutoView blinds with a remote control device, then yes, you can use a single-channel remote paired to multiple blind sets (as I've done), AND/OR

Once you get your blinds controllable by Vera, you could use any ZWave remote (including the standard GE one, or one of the individual blind ones that come with your AutoView blinds) to trigger a scene that would operate the blinds together, AND/OR

Use Alexa with the ha-bridge (or Vera's beta Alexa voice skill) voice control to trigger a scene to do likewise (as I've also done). There's really no need to pay the extra for a single-channel remote, apart from some minor convenience.

Edited to add:I should point out that the Bali single-channel remotes have an Up, Down, and a Home button, whreeas the individual blind remotes only have Up and Down. The Home button is pretty useful, as I typically have my blinds in "Home" mode (50% down by default, but you can program a different Home setting in the blind).

Also note that the Bali remotes normally operate the blinds directly. They don't contact your Vera hub to tell it do control the blinds ... unless you programmed scenes in Vera to work that way. So the remotes will work out of range of the Vera hub, or even if the hub is down, as long as they're in range of the blinds.

My blinds came (from blinds.com) with little square plastic "tabs" and screws and anchors to attach the tabs to a wall. The remotes then slip onto those tabs (but are easily removable if you want). I've mounted my individual blind controls side-by-side on a wall fairly to the blinds that they control, so they're always available for individual blind control. I've mounted my three single-channel remotes (one controls four Florida-room blinds; one controls three Dining-room blinds, and one controls three Living-room blinds) side by side on the wall in a main room where I can see all of the blinds from that central point. And then of course I also have the option of "Alexa, turn on dining room blinds halfway" voice control, for example. And I have six Alexa devices around my house, so one is always within "earshot".